French Polynesia's Flosse may appeal latest court decision

Transcript

Lawyers for French Polynesia's disgraced former president, Gaston Flosse, are reportedly considering an appeal against a ruling that would prevent him from standing for office at the next election.

Last week, the appeal court upheld Flosse's conviction for abuse of public funds, giving him a suspended jail sentence and banning him from office for two years.

A statement issued by the French justice ministry says the ban has to be served at the end of a ban for a previous conviction, not concurrently, which would prevent him from running in the 2018 election.

But Alex du Prel, of the Tahiti Pacifique magazine, told Jamie Tahana that Flosse's lawyers have disputed this interpretation, and says they're weighing up a possible court challenge.

ALEX DU PREL: We have another one of these usual French judicial debates.  We have on one side Mr Flosse who had been condemned once already to two years of loss of civil rights and not holding an office. And now he's been condemned by the appeals court to another three years of not being allowed to run for office. So what sounds the same is not really the same and Mr Flosse has expensive lawyers saying 'no, no, no these are not exactly the same verdicts, they cannot be accummulated, they must run at the same time'. If they run at the same time Mr Flosse will be able to present himself to 2018 elections in Tahiti while if they run one behind another then Mr Flosse will not be able to run until 2022 because there will be no elections in between. So now it's a fight and the Attorney General in Tahiti says 'no, no, he has to finish one and then the other one', and Mr Flosse's lawyers say 'no they have to combine the two sentences.' So, it's going to take maybe another year or two before that's decided because Mr Flosse's lawyer went to the French appellate court and anyhow, you know, it just keeps on going.  

JAMIE TAHANA: So Mr Flosse's lawyers have indicated that they are going to challenge this Attorney-General's ruling in the Paris courts, are they?

AP: Well there were two things, the one thing is would they go to the Supreme Court for the sentence, which was given by the appeals court.  And they decided not to even though Mr Flosse wanted so now the debate is not about the appeal, the sentence is definitive.  The appeal is now only about the running of the interdiction of running for office.  Is it another two years or is it four years?  Well even if it takes two years if the upper appeals court in Paris decides that the two interdiction of holding office run parallel then he could present himself for the 2018 elections, that's what he's after.